Editorial Desk :
News reports said at least 50 chairmen candidates in the first phase of the upcoming Union Parishad (UP) elections are set to be declared elected unopposed from 738 UPs raising questions why there is not a single opposition candidate to challenge the ruling party nominees in those areas.
Moreover, the absence of BNP Chairman aspirant in 114 UPs appears quite surprising at a time when a total of 3,568 candidates including 1900 fielded by political parties are overcrowding the scene. The situation is rather indicative of the fact that BNP candidates who are strong challenger to the ruling party in UP polls were barred in those places from filing the nominations and in places where they were able to file nominations, they are keeping out of the scene in fear of safety.
There are also allegations that councillors’ candidates were unable to file nominations at many places and polling officials rejected their nomination papers using slight pretext as party leaders claimed. These are serious allegations to make the upcoming elections highly fraught with irregularities to claim public acceptance.
This UP election is going to be reminiscent of the January 5 Parliament election in 2014 when even greater number of 154 MPs were elected unopposed to deny the people their right to elect members of Parliament. Meanwhile other local body elections were also highly fraught with irregularities giving a new damning character to democratic elections in Bangladesh.
BNP complaints that the Election Commission (EC) is ‘working together’ with the government to deny a fair UP election deserve consideration when the election environment appears under total control of the ruling party and the EC is not doing anything to restore voters’ confidence.
It is no use depending on Election Commission for fair UP elections. The Election Commissioners are not ready to challenge the government and say that without full cooperation of the government to support fair election, they will resign. So the Election Commission is a helpless on-looker.
It appears that the ruling party is working with a clear UP elections roadmap to use a landslide victory to claim that it has mass support for Awami League and to show BNP has lost people’s support through huge electoral defeat. It is a game plan of imagination and deception as advanced by turncoat political advisers who joined the government as former bureaucrats and now more misleading the government in terms of its future political risks.
The way the government is advancing the UP elections speaks out the fact that it wants to stop the repeat of the defeat of the last UP elections in 2012 in a bid to totally capture the local politics. To the government advisers, deceiving voters or denying the nation a fair election is not anything much criminal and unethical than showing big victory for the government when victory is going to be all the more illusive for it.
Complaining about fairness of UP elections will not be of any help, unless the national general election is held fairly. Besides, when the elections are held on party tickets, the government cannot afford to loose. The government will have to show its popularity.
News reports said at least 50 chairmen candidates in the first phase of the upcoming Union Parishad (UP) elections are set to be declared elected unopposed from 738 UPs raising questions why there is not a single opposition candidate to challenge the ruling party nominees in those areas.
Moreover, the absence of BNP Chairman aspirant in 114 UPs appears quite surprising at a time when a total of 3,568 candidates including 1900 fielded by political parties are overcrowding the scene. The situation is rather indicative of the fact that BNP candidates who are strong challenger to the ruling party in UP polls were barred in those places from filing the nominations and in places where they were able to file nominations, they are keeping out of the scene in fear of safety.
There are also allegations that councillors’ candidates were unable to file nominations at many places and polling officials rejected their nomination papers using slight pretext as party leaders claimed. These are serious allegations to make the upcoming elections highly fraught with irregularities to claim public acceptance.
This UP election is going to be reminiscent of the January 5 Parliament election in 2014 when even greater number of 154 MPs were elected unopposed to deny the people their right to elect members of Parliament. Meanwhile other local body elections were also highly fraught with irregularities giving a new damning character to democratic elections in Bangladesh.
BNP complaints that the Election Commission (EC) is ‘working together’ with the government to deny a fair UP election deserve consideration when the election environment appears under total control of the ruling party and the EC is not doing anything to restore voters’ confidence.
It is no use depending on Election Commission for fair UP elections. The Election Commissioners are not ready to challenge the government and say that without full cooperation of the government to support fair election, they will resign. So the Election Commission is a helpless on-looker.
It appears that the ruling party is working with a clear UP elections roadmap to use a landslide victory to claim that it has mass support for Awami League and to show BNP has lost people’s support through huge electoral defeat. It is a game plan of imagination and deception as advanced by turncoat political advisers who joined the government as former bureaucrats and now more misleading the government in terms of its future political risks.
The way the government is advancing the UP elections speaks out the fact that it wants to stop the repeat of the defeat of the last UP elections in 2012 in a bid to totally capture the local politics. To the government advisers, deceiving voters or denying the nation a fair election is not anything much criminal and unethical than showing big victory for the government when victory is going to be all the more illusive for it.
Complaining about fairness of UP elections will not be of any help, unless the national general election is held fairly. Besides, when the elections are held on party tickets, the government cannot afford to loose. The government will have to show its popularity.
